Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites
by my shangri-la
Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.
1. Chapter 1

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

_**Chapter 1**_

_(Episode 1: Pilot)_

She was the girl who'd never even gone skinny dipping. It hurt that he could just be so casual about calling her a slut.

They used to be _friends_.

Veronica hated that Logan still knew her… and that he knew _exactly_ where her soft spots were. The times he would have protected her back then, he now used the opportunity to twist the knife. Her short hair and leather boots didn't change her, not really. But she'd grown a thick skin, and she'd be damned if she ever let him know that he really hurt her. _Even if the crack about her mom was a low blow._

_Even if Duncan always stayed silent and let them try to maul each other like angry cats, like she wasn't the girl he'd been head over heels for barely a year ago. Like Veronica and Logan hadn't been friends at all._

She'd thought she and Duncan might get married once. But she was living in a princess fairytale. His apathy disgusted her now, and he'd never been an avenger in their relationship either.

It didn't matter anymore, their shared history.

Their new game of trading punches, her and Logan… it was survival. For both of them. She still knew him too.

_Logan was hurting. _It was the emotion that leaked from everything he'd set in motion to destroy her. _She was the only one left for him to blame._

He'd knocked her off her good-girl pedestal.

Too bad he didn't realize she didn't want it anymore.

_Unless she just didn't __**let**__ herself want it because she knew she could never have it back_, but that required too much soul searching for the time being.

Still she was quite happy – well, maybe not _happy_ exactly – but she was fairly content being able to hold her own.

_Neptune's _hammer of justice. Her _own_ hammer of justice.

God knew the sheriff didn't dispense anything that resembled justice in their town.

Besides, if she wasn't dispensing the wrath of god on those who deserved it, who would she be?

_That weak girl who'd stood in front of her bathroom mirror with last night's makeup still smudged on her face, contemplating what exactly to do with the scissors on the counter?_

Her naiveté had been ripped from her along with her virginity.

With Lamb's voice ringing in her ears, telling her to grow a backbone, she'd picked up the scissors and made the first cut.

Even that awful morning after, she'd known – somewhere deep inside her – that Logan wouldn't have allowed that to happen. But he'd been the catalyst. Logan had turned on her, and that was as good as declaring open season, which he'd whole-heartedly condoned.

Making Veronica pay was his new purpose in life.

She'd paid enough, not that he knew that.

He would pay too. He would pay because he was the reason she had to put her armor on every morning before she left the house. He would pay because every time she felt eyes on her, she had to wonder if they'd taken her underwear off and had sex with her while she'd been unconscious.

So, when the new kid had tried to make friends with her, she hadn't been welcoming. She used think she had friends. And now the life she'd known was in shambles. Besides the fact that she knew if Logan or any of his lackeys noticed someone in her corner, they would be torn to shreds. And the poor guy had already been taped buck naked to the flag pole… she was doing him a favor.

Their revenge circle of two wouldn't end until someone stepped away. And she and Logan were both two stubborn for that. _Ask Duncan. He'd attempted to referee their fights before, and those had been __**friendly**__. Lilly had just watched with amusement. She'd liked when Veronica was riled up._ It was only a question of who else would be destroyed in their war. She knew without a doubt that there would be collateral damage. Because they weren't friends anymore, and barbs were now meant to hurt, not just to drive each other crazy.

_Lilly would have hated this… or maybe she would have loved it._

_Lilly was her best friend, but she'd demanded more loyalty than she'd given. But the three of them? They'd still loved her. They __**still**__ love her._

They were all dead inside without her.

It was why Duncan floated.

It was why Logan put all his energy into destroying her reputation in the crudest way possible.

It was why she taunted Weevil's bravado with a look of pure _blasé_ on her face, when Wallace nearly pissed his pants.

They were all a twisted mess.

Veronica would admit that she got a sick pleasure at Logan's reaction to finding out she'd put the bong in his locker. He'd been surprised.

The crack he'd made about her mother was been _too far_. And the fact that she got to include some punishment for him in her plan to get the PCHers off Wallace's back? Made it all the more sweet.

(Ruining Lamb's day was the cherry on the proverbial Sunday. _Not like he didn't deserve it._)

Tit for tat.

He'd turned her into this.

_She'd take him on and see what happened when the tables were turned._

0

Veronica was expecting payback for the stunt she pulled with Logan. Him with his buddies and a crowbar though…

_Dammit, she was going to need new headlights._

Okay, the veiled crack he'd made about his father wrapped inside a line from a Beach Boys song cleared things up a bit. Things were _rocky_ in the Echolls' household to say the least. _She knew phony happiness when she saw it. It was like looking in the mirror._

She wasn't sure what she was expecting when she heard the sounds of motorcycles, but she'd just gotten two of Weevil's boys out of trouble, so he couldn't possibly be mad at _her_. But she _wasn't _expecting what sounded a hell of a lot like a small offer of protection from the biker.

… Or the way Logan had moved in front of her.

She'd seen that move before. _He probably didn't even realize that he'd done it this time._

Now, it could just be that he never did wait for someone to come to him if a fight was going to happen, but…

The fact that Weevil was protecting her from _Logan_ was a shock to him. She could tell by the tenseness of his shoulders. And his confusion had lent to his rampant sarcasm.

Veronica knew that Logan would rather get beat up than ever apologize to her – _especially with an audience, __**and**__ because someone told him to do it._

Weevil didn't know Logan like she did, unfortunately.

But she meant what she said, even if he did deserve a few punches. _She didn't want his apology. It wouldn't change anything._

Rescuing Logan Echolls from a problem _he'd_ created?

What the hell was she thinking?

And don't think she hadn't noticed the way he'd watched her as the Chevrolet drove away.

Old habits were hard to break.

Even now. _For both of them apparently._

That was… _good to know._

So, she and Logan definitely weren't friends… but maybe, in some screwed-to-hell kind of way, _maybe they were still family._

00

**A/N: Okay, so I'm going to do one chapter for every episode, some may be shorter than others. And, yes, I realize that thoughts may be jumbled a bit. But sometimes that's just the way it is. They're all confused and lost right now. And certain situations trigger memories, and thoughts, but I'll try to keep this as cohesive as possible. If something really bothers you, as far as the flow of the chapter is concerned, you can let me know, as long as you're polite about it. (I'm not being a jerk, but a lot of people on the internet don't have respect from the other side of the computer screen. I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about.)**

**That being said, I'm good with tracking tangents in my own brain, so if you want some clarification, ask a question. Or let me know, and I'll look at adjusting it.**

**Let me know how you guys feel about this chapter. (I like reviews, and I will message you back.)**

**Fun fact: I really like the first season. It's a favorite. I really like seeing the characters grow and change… Okay, I also really like the Logan/Veronica banter!**

**And I KNOW this had no dialogue, but that doesn't mean they will all be formatted this way. =)**

**Thanks for reading, and leave a review. (I promise you won't get another author's note this long!)**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

_**Chapter 2**_

(_Episode 2: Credit Where Credit's Due_)

_Wallace wanted to crash an 09er party? Had she taught him nothing?!_

Well, maybe she'd spared him the dirty details.

And coming right out to say '_crashing an 09er party is a good way to get roofied and raped_' would put a damper on any new potential friendship.

So, maybe, that wasn't her go to explanation.

But, crashing an 09er party? Hell no.

00

_Duncan came to a party and brought a friend?_ Logan thought he hid his shock fairly well.

His buddy didn't party much these days, and usually had the personality of a wet sock.

Logan couldn't blame him. Lilly was his _sister_, after all. And they were closer than most siblings.

Duncan and Lilly were a _million_ times closer than Logan was with _his_ sister. But Trina was a bitch, so there was that.

So, Logan was nearly about to give Duncan's friend a high-five for getting him out of the house. And then the guy opened his mouth.

_What the hell kind of a name was Troy Vandergraff anyway? It was a preppy, rich, asshole name, is what it was. And even Logan could see that. And Caitlin was __**flirting**__ with him… while practically sitting in Logan's lap._

If that wasn't bad enough, Weevil showed up.

Okay, he knew that being on Dog Beach was probably asking for trouble, but Logan was still getting pretty damn sick of seeing that biker's face.

He was still pissed about Weevil interfering with his argument with Veronica, and then punching him repeatedly. _Since when did his tiny blonde menace have the biker gang on a leash, anyways?_

So, he ran his mouth, and made a few cracks that would have a fight gearing up in no time. He supposed he should probably still be slightly grateful for the Sheriff's shoddy police work as they all scattered.

But he wasn't.

00

_Mrs. Navarro was arrested?_

Veronica nearly went into shock when she heard.

She loved that woman. And quite frankly, she was the only one in that house that made sure Logan didn't die over shellfish, so Veronica wasn't sure why Logan hadn't done anything about it.

_And the fact that he was bragging was tacky, even for him._

She hated to think it…

But if Logan was trying to get back at Weevil – _she'd heard they'd had another face-off on the beach over the weekend – _getting his grandmother fired was a crappy way to go about it.

Still, she had to talk to Weevil.

And that was… _unpleasant._

They didn't know each other well enough yet to know where the boundary lines were. _And they both stepped over a few._

_Ouch._

He was right in a way, though. She'd assumed, based on his reputation. And he'd given her the benefit of the doubt despite hers. Veronica knew how to trust her gut. And she was fairly certain that Weevil, at least, wouldn't do anything to hurt his family.

Well, that was one name off the suspect list.

_It would be harder to convince har father and Cliff._

0

Creepy guy clocking her in the front office? Veronica hid her amusement.

Creepy guy clocking her, and then introducing Wallace to her wonderful world of espionage? _Awesome._

She'd gotten sent to work on the school newspaper. _What the hell?_

Since when was trying not to engage with the students that made her life hell a crime? It was her firm belief that the school guidance counselor was a moron.

Still, maybe she could 'connect' in appearance only. If she could stay behind her camera, she would be happy to be left to her own work.

But, alas, she was still Fate's bitch.

Not only were Logan and his latest chew toy – because let's face it, that's exactly what they looked like while sucking face – in the class, but she was partnered with Duncan on her first assignment.

_High awkward points for the ex-boyfriend factor._

She was really grateful for Wallace's distraction. Veronica was much happier dealing with other people's problems, even if it potentially included Logan. And since she got almost concrete proof that Weevil didn't steal the credit card from the Echolls', Logan was next on her hit list.

0

Newspaper class where she couldn't get as far away from Logan cuddling his idiot girlfriend as possible? _Kill her now._

Caitlin would stop talking eventually, right? Her brain only had so much air. So Veronica waited for her to deflate. _She kept her cool, and got in a subtle statement that told Logan he was on her list._

Her smile was almost innocent, but her look had '_I'm gonna get'cha_' all over it.

So when he taunted her with the rumors – that he'd no doubt started – about her obsession with Duncan, she'd engaged in a playful flirtation that she knew would piss off the balloon in his lap. And she hit the jackpot when Caitlin blabbed that their fourth period class was in the computer lab.

Logan looked like he was considering clamping a hand over his girlfriend's pink-painted mouth just to shut her up.

Veronica turned back to her computer screen, a slow smile creeping across her face when she realized Logan was studying her.

_Come on, Echolls, read my mind. It will make this so much easier._

0

By the afternoon, Veronica knew way more about Logan's obsession with Alyssa Milano than she ever wanted. _Seriously, if they were still friends, she would customize an Alyssa Milano calendar for his birthday. Maybe she could still do it as a prank…_

00

Logan crossed the parking lot at the end of the school day, and found Veronica standing next to her junker that now had a flat tire.

"Bummer", he muttered as she was probably staring at him incredulously behind her dark sunglasses.

She watched him with suspicion, not saying a word, but for once he let it go. _She had no reason to trust him, but the nod he gave her implied that he meant it honestly. But it wasn't an apology._

He really wasn't in the mood for taunting her about her problems today.

Letting the almost familiar moment between them in the newspaper work room get under his skin was an amateur move on his part. His war with Veronica didn't allow for any weaknesses. _Especially now that she fought back._

But, he still gave the signal of approval for the handiwork when he turned around. It was expected. And upsetting the mass of lemmings with his mood today wasn't something he wanted to bother with.

And then he saw Troy talking to Veronica, making her laugh… _helping her fix her tire?_

Caitlin decided to throw her two cents into the mix, disrupting his internal debate on whether he should go interrupt, and he was even more determined to let it go.

Until Veronica crossed the lot with Duncan and got into his car. _Lilly's car._

_Great_, Logan thought with a scowl. _He was going to have to do triage when Duncan came back from a Veronica outing._

His only consolation was that Veronica looked even more uncomfortable at the turn of events than his friend.

But he still smacked Beaver, a quick slap to the back of his head. "Idiot", he grumbled.

00

The silence in the car was deafening. She wondered briefly if Duncan would even react if she threw herself out of the car and onto the highway. Memories of their failed relationship assaulted her. Memories of _Lilly_… God, she missed Lilly.

It was better once they got to the beach and had to focus on their task. It was mindless chit-chat, but it was better than the alternative.

But the icing on the cake was getting pulled over because of Lilly's tickets. Which, honestly, was almost better, because driving home in the dark felt a lot like date night used to…

In the fifteen minutes before hers and Duncan's respective fathers showed up, she leaned against the front bumper and couldn't help but laugh.

Duncan looked at her like she was crazy. "What? What's so funny?" _They'd already had the obligatory, 'what the hell do we tell our parents' conversation. Quick and fast like ripping off a Band-aid. At least this time they hadn't actually done anything wrong, police involved or not. But with their family history, it was going to be awkward as hell._

She shrugged helplessly. "This", Veronica gestured vaguely, still laughing. "This is just so _Lilly_."

He snorted, "Yeah. She'd get a kick out of me nearly getting the car impounded because of her tickets. There's got to be at least ten."

"More", Veronica shook her head.

He chuckled. "I don't know how she passed her driving test with her 'traffic laws are just suggestions' theory."

"She flirted with the driving instructor", Veronica offered, shaking her head. "That poor guy didn't see her coming."

"Ah."

They waited in silence after that.

0

Her performance at the Grand was one for the books.

And her research proved what she already knew. Caitlin Ford was a high-end skank. _The Honeymoon suite? Seriously?_

Now he just had to get Logan to admit he stole the card, and Weevil would be out of that pumpkin orange jumpsuit.

00

_Caitlin Ford signed the service tab at the Neptune Grand?_ Logan frowned, wheels turning. Maybe Veronica was lying- no. She was still trying to pin it on him.

He needed to figure this out. _If Caitlin was cheating on him, he wasn't going to be the one made a fool of… and he wasn't going to let her get away with stealing his mother's credit card._

He passed Veronica at lunch, gesturing at her purposefully. _She was onto him? No. He was onto her, and he wanted her to know it._

By the time he was seated on the wall next to Duncan – a Duncan that _thankfully_ didn't look too terrorized from spending the day with his ex – Veronica was nowhere in sight.

Caitlin and Troy were flirting… again.

So when Duncan handed him Caitlin's purse, it didn't take long for his suspicious nature to get the better of him. _Damn Veronica. _He pulled the cell phone from her purse, and looked through the numbers.

It wasn't long before he hit pay dirt.

He was stalking down the hallway after Chardo when he saw the biker get side-tackled into the girls bathroom by a tiny blonde. _Seriously?!_

He was getting sick of Veronica Mars in his business. _What was it going to take for him to be able to put his fist through someone's face?_

00

Veronica sighed as she left the bathroom, grateful to find the hallway empty. _Chardo is a delusional idiot._

She headed over to the Navarro house to attempt some damage control.

She was still there, waiting with Mrs. Navarro, nearly two hours later, when Weevil was dropped off.

Mrs. Navarro went inside to cook, giving her a few minutes alone with Weevil. _Did he just hug her?_

She gave him the heads up about Logan and the police being after his cousin. She wanted to let him know to stay out of their way while he got his revenge. Veronica knew Weevil couldn't let this betrayal slide, and she didn't want to see him land back in jail the same day she'd gotten him out.

Logan wanted his own revenge, and after the posse he'd come after _her_ with, she knew he wouldn't be alone. She didn't want this to turn into a war between the PCHers and the 09ers.

He nodded seriously, before raising an eyebrow. "Anything else I can do for you?" he asked mockingly.

She gave a sheepish grin in response. "There is one other thing…"

"Of course there is."

00

Logan and his buddies descended onto Chardo like wolves hunting their prey.

Unfortunately they didn't get very far before motorcycles roared up the street.

Logan sure as hell wasn't expecting Weevil to be all calm and reasonable. He'd been gearing up for this fight for a few weeks now, and this was pretty anticlimactic.

But in the end, Weevil promised that the payback would cover them both.

Logan should have left it alone, but there was one question he wanted an answer for. "Why?"

"I don't know why, but for some reason, she's really invested in me not kicking your face in", Weevil rolled his eyes. "You owe her a thank you."

"I'll send her a card", Logan said dryly, "Or maybe a fruit basket." _He did not need an explanation about the 'she' in question._

"I don't know what the details are, but I know Veronica has been better to you this week than that disloyal bitch you called your girlfriend. Maybe you should think about that before you run your mouth again." _Weevil __**knew**__ Lilly would be kicking Logan's ass over what he was pulling with her best friend. He couldn't come out and say that because that would open him up to a hell of a lot of questions about how and why he knew Lilly so well, and he wasn't going to answer those questions._

_He also knew Echolls had a temper._

_Logan and Lilly had never cared where they were or who they were with when they got into their brawls, and they'd usually attracted quite the crowd with their yelling. _

_So when Weevil had pulled up to the beach and found him going at Veronica's car with a tire iron, he sure as hell wasn't going to let that escalate._

_And maybe Veronica was right. He really didn't want a war on his hands right now._

Logan walked away. He still wanted to beat Chardo's smug face, but now all he had to worry about was making sure Caitlin was put back in her place. _Especially after seeing the look on her face through the window. She'd wanted the fight. How stupid would he have been for getting into a fight over __**her**__? Yeah, Caitlin Ford was done in Neptune._

00

When Veronica saw the ticket and realized the time of death for Lilly's murder was wrong, her first thought was that the only person who would want to know this more than her would be Logan…

_And then she remembered._

0

At lunch she watched Caitlin Ford be banished from the mighty 09er kingdom. The stab of pain might have been empathy, or it may have been her own pain that she'd shoved down so far it hadn't seen the sun in nearly a year.

Either way, she already had a distraction at her fingertips. She left the courtyard with Wallace and Troy behind her, and didn't look back.

00

**A/N: Okay, yes seriously, the first scene between Troy and Veronica, he acts like a total creeper! And my favorite part – other than Veronica batting her eyelashes at Logan – is when they are both calling the same number at the same time and get the busy signal. I kind of love when Logan goes sleuthing.**

**And we've got some Duncan and Weevil thrown into the mix in this chapter… I like it.**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

_**Chapter 3**_

(_Episode 3: Meet John Smith_)

Veronica was starting to enjoy her time with Troy. He could at least amuse her with banter. She wasn't really interested in dating him, but it was kind of nice to have a guy treat her normally, other than Wallace.

Wallace Fennel did _not_ flirt with her.

But most of the school's make population avoided her, or tormented her. There used to be guys that believed the rumors about her in the boys' bathroom were true, and their comments had resulted in a few kicks from her stomper boots to the groin area.

It wasn't such an issue now.

_Who had time to sexually harass her these days when Logan was suddenly taking up so much of her time?_

But she wasn't looking for anything remotely serious. Besides the fact that she was seriously lacking in the trust department, Troy was a friend of Duncan's. That just… didn't sit well with her, especially since she still had no clue why Duncan had dumped her in the first place.

Of course, since school happened to suck a little less, of course things at home would start to deteriorate. _Fate's bitch, remember?_

_She hated when her dad was upset with her but…_

_Could someone explain to her just what the hell she was doing dreaming about Duncan?!_

00

Duncan was about done with hearing his parents talk around him at the dinner table, or at him about his life's goals, and _could he please find something that motivates him towards the White House?_

Motivation? What was he supposed to be motivated about?

The anti-depressants only allowed him feelings of apathy, and occasional bouts of anger and frustration.

But it numbed the grief, and that was what his parents had wanted in the first place, right?

He wasn't moving on fast enough?

His sister had been murdered, and his mother kept going to her tennis matches.

Motivation?

Fine.

He was tired of feeling nothing anyway.

He dropped the pill down the sink while his mother wasn't paying attention.

Duncan went to school, feeling strangely liberated and alive, for the first time since Lilly's death.

00

Veronica went to school with thoughts and memories of her mother haunting her. _Could you be haunted by the living? Her mom sure felt like a ghost._

When Troy bumped into her, she decided to move forward in at least one area of her life. Veronica asked him out. Troy had been spending more time with her than Duncan anyway.

00

Logan was feeling pretty optimistic that morning as Duncan talked about hanging out with Shelly Pomeroy the night before. _And then he saw Veronica and Troy._

He should really stop using Veronica to provoke Duncan.

_But it was kind of a habit._

He would work on it though, especially if Duncan's new response was to race to the bathroom looking like he'd had bad Thai food – _again._

_Damn Veronica._

And there she was, of course, whizzing past him and Duncan without a second glance, with some freshman being dragged behind her.

_That was new._

His comment made Duncan almost laugh, and they both were probably grinning like idiots walking to class.

00

While Veronica began a goose hunt, _tracking down a John Smith in California, seriously_, Duncan was starting to feel the effects of stopping his medication cold turkey.

First, actual vomit, now _word vomit?_

He really should have known that he had pushed down all the issues with his parents over the years, but with the pressure now resting fully on him, it was too much. He was starting to get why Lilly would just yell her problems from the roof, not giving a damn who heard or might be offended. It relieved a lot of stress.

00

Veronica teaches Wallace some more tricks of the sleuthing trade as she pressed onward with her near impossible missing dad case, presenting him to her father like he was the ultimate friend trophy… which he kind of _was_.

_Suck on that, high school guidance counselor._

And then that night, she goes out on her date with Troy.

They had a lot of fun. She got to laugh, and was pretty relaxed by the end of the night.

And that simply did not jive with the near head-on collision that occurred when he tried to kiss her.

_Why was she such a moron?_

Was she really still that hung up over her rape? She wouldn't know. She hadn't let her feel anything about that since nearly two weeks after it had happened. _But if sex issues were going to start spilling out all over her life now, she would have appreciated getting a memo about it first!_

0

There was a break in her case that nearly fell through – _good thing, because she was about to tear her hair out _– so she was in a better mood. Veronica knew she owed Troy an explanation and an apology. _Hopefully she could avoid the explanation part by being her usual cute self…_

So, when she found him near the quad, it didn't take her too long to decide that words weren't working in her favor.

_She kissed him._

00

Logan had definitely noticed the distinct lack of _Troy Vandergraff_ in their circle lately.

He couldn't help but comment on his missing presence. And if his hunch was right, Troy was blowing them off because _he_ was-

_Well._

He knew it was stupid, making a comment like that about Veronica to Duncan. Even though he was almost positive it wasn't true. She and Duncan had barely been rounding third base when they'd ended. _Best friend privileges and Lilly's big mouth had made sure he had most of the details, despite Veronica's attempts to keep a few choice details private._

Besides, Logan wasn't stupid enough to believe that half the rumors that _he_ was responsible for were true.

He sure as _hell_ wasn't expecting his best friend to practically tackle him on the bleachers though. But he'd been getting unusually feisty on the subject of Veronica Mars lately. Logan would have to figure out where his head was at with that soon.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by Duncan's bastardization of all the crappy Kung-fu movies they'd watched over the years.

It was a brief skirmish before Logan gave up.

_And then…_

_This was __**not**__ happening._

Logan and Duncan had been forced into watching – _and re-watching_ – _Grease _so many times they _both_ unfortunately knew all the words to the songs. And he'd known exactly what his friend was getting at before he'd started singing – _badly._

_Dammit._

But, things were weird, _not crazy_, until DK decided he wanted to jump off the bleachers like a lunatic too.

_And then missed the mats on the ground._

By the time Logan looked over the edge, Veronica was already there hovering… with Troy.

_Saint Veronica, here to save the day,_ he thought grimly. _Of course. Never mind the fact that seeing her make googly eyes at Troy had probably caused Duncan to act like a moron in the first place._

_Veronica freaking Mars._

But he was also pissed at his friend for acting like a bonehead.

So when the tiny blonde turned on a sweet smile that Logan hadn't seen since before Lilly died, or probably since before Duncan had dumped her without a word, he didn't go offer to help. _Besides, Troy was still down there…_

The three of them left. But Troy came back ten minutes later, stating, "Veronica said she'd handle it."

"I bet she will", Logan muttered darkly.

00

_Don't yell at the guy who just fell on his head_, she said to herself as Duncan rambled about the '_good ole days_'.

_Why the hell wasn't Logan doing this?_

_No, of course not. Mister 'Jackass of the Year' couldn't be bothered right now._

So maybe Veronica was a little bitter.

_It sucked being a good person._

Whatever.

Between Duncan not letting her get out the words 'I'm not his girlfriend', and Jake Kane walking in the room, Veronica was more than ready to bolt. She took the opportunity.

She needed to go back to dealing with other people's lives, instead of the mess that was her own.

00

Duncan had thought he would feel better without the pills clouding his mind.

But… seeing Lilly?

Her giving voice to the buried thoughts in his mind?

He missed Lilly.

But he didn't think he could handle her playing his Devil's advocate from the grave.

_It had been hard enough when she was alive._

_Lilly had always pushed him, trying to get him out of his shell._

But as it turned out…

Reality sucks.

He took another pill.

00

Well, Veronica's case had been solved… in a spectacularly _odd_ fashion.

But it had given her a new resolve.

She had promised herself that she was done waiting for her mother a long time ago.

_It curbed the disappointment._

But now?

She wanted an explanation.

_She deserved an explanation._

_And she was going to get one._

One way or another.

She went to school.

00

Logan watched warily as Veronica approached Duncan before class, rolling his eyes before reluctantly heading over as well. Duncan was undoubtedly once again firmly on his parents' leash again after pulling a 'dangerous, stupid stunt'. _Celeste was practically hyperventilating when Logan hung up from his quick phone call to see if his buddy had brain damage – and whether it had been caused by the fall or not._

If Veronica thought she was coming back to the inner circle, Logan would take her to get _her_ head checked. But the stupid smile on her face was full of genuine concern, and his generally dark mood abated enough that he didn't rain on her parade. If she wanted to pull her previous Yorkshire terrier personality off the shelf for a minute to yap at Duncan's heels, he'd let it go.

Maybe those two just needed some closure, and the Veronica chapter would be sealed for good.

They could all move on. _Hopefully without anymore head injuries._

He shuffled a few steps closer, intending to wrap up the conversation before people started to notice the three of them standing together.

_And then he watched Duncan walk away from her with only a one word answer that didn't involve 'thank you'._

The implied return of the cold shoulder was practically arctic.

Apparently the ice had touched him too. His feet were frozen to the floor as they both watched him walk away.

And despite the giant wall between them, Logan knew that he and Veronica were sharing the exact same memory.

_Duncan had left them without a word at Lilly's funeral too._

And they stood there, bereft, wondering what the hell had just happened.

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**A/N: Thanks, Guest, for the review! If you log in, I can respond in PM. I'm so happy you're all enjoying this. Yay! My journey into the Veronica Mars writing world is awesome.**

**Okay, I'm curious about what you all think of this chapter… and of this episode in general. I always feel like the last half of it is fairly dark. It lets the weaknesses of the characters show through the cracks, despite their best efforts to cover them up.**

**You guys know the drill. Read and then review. =)**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

**A/N: Okay, so this is nearly 4,000 words without the long author's note at the bottom, so all I have to say is that I posted two chapters today, so make sure you don't miss one. Read on!**

_**Chapter 4**_

(_Episode 4: The Wrath of Con_)

Veronica had tried to keep the knowledge that it was homecoming season locked in a box.

A box she had no intention of opening any time soon.

There were too many memories in that box. Memories that would only be understood by the two people who couldn't deign to even tolerate her presence these days.

And then Troy asked her to go with him to the dance.

_She did __**not**__ want to go._

Her previous resolve to move forward had been left somewhere, and she couldn't seem to find it. It was too hard to move on, with memories of Lilly, and memories of the four of them, swirling through her thoughts, muddying up the colors of everyday life.

_What did she want?_

Great question.

Too bad she didn't have an answer.

Veronica missed Duncan. Well- the Duncan that he was before Lilly died. It was hard to miss him now when he was a different person.

Missing Logan was harder.

He was the guy that ate waffles at her house the morning after last year's homecoming and then took a nap with her, sending silly pictures to Lilly and Duncan before falling asleep on her bed like they hadn't all night long.

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_Veronica got in the backseat of the police car too after Logan grumbled about feeling like he was getting arrested._

_It was only a few minutes before she couldn't take the quiet anymore._

"_Dad", she sighed. "How much longer are you planning to punish us with oppressing silence?"_

"_Oh, you mean it was working?" Keith chuckled._

"_Definitely. Can you stop it now?"_

"_You know you're grounded right?" he caught his daughter's eye in the rear view mirror._

"_I figured", she sighed._

"_Was it worth it?"_

"_Are you going to be madder if I say yes?"_

_Logan snickered, still leaning against the window next to her. She kicked him with the pointy toe of her high-heeled shoe, pointedly ignoring his sleepily amused grin._

"_I'm glad you had fun. But yeah, you're definitely grounded. Logan, do you need to go home or do you want some waffles?"_

"_I like waffles."_

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Veronica missed Lilly.

Lilly, who gave her fashion advice, and let her borrow slutty tops.

Lilly, who was good at making Veronica feel like she didn't always need to stay in her 'good girl' mold.

Lilly, who could be a total _bitch_ if you pissed her off.

Lilly, who could make Duncan laugh.

Lilly, who loved causing drama.

Lilly, who thought she deserved to be 'red satin'.

Lilly, who always found the most inappropriate places to start dry-humping Logan before they ran off for a quickie. (_Like that one time they all went to the mall._)

Lilly… _Lilly, who kept secrets._

Lilly.

Her best friend.

She felt like she was missing a limb. And every time it felt like the wound was healing?

She smashed it against the wall.

_Hard._

0

Thank god she had a case to work on.

She almost hugged Wallace for the distraction.

But she figured that would wig him out.

A lot.

The fact that she could create a whole new personality for this case?

_Even better._

Okay, so maybe Wallace was looking at her like she was just a bit manic.

She'd have to rein it in a bit.

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Veronica was in the newspaper room that morning when the announcement came over the television announcements.

She looked up from her work at the sound of Lilly's name. _She had tunnel vision._ Almost without knowing it, she moved, taking curious steps closer to the information that she couldn't make sense of right now.

_A Lilly Kane Memorial Fountain? Seriously?_

She hoped her face didn't look as horrified and flabbergasted as she felt. _It had been a year. It felt like the reminder, now verbally spoken, from someone who hadn't cared about Lilly like she had, was shredding her insides._

_She __**was**__ still standing, wasn't she?_

There was only one person in the room who would understand how she felt right now.

She couldn't help but glance across the room at Logan, who'd walked in seconds before the large bomb had dropped.

_Did he know?_

By the look on his face, she was certain he'd had no idea. He caught her eye for a brief second before looking away.

It was enough.

They both knew.

_This was going to be a crappy week._

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Veronica wasn't really in the mood for dealing with Troy's pep today, but she put on a good face. When he walked away, she considered smashing her head in her locker. _Did she really just agree to go to homecoming?_

After everything that had happened, losing her best friend to a murder, and her other two friends because of ostracism, Veronica had pretty much figured she would never go to homecoming again. Not that she had any desire to go without Lilly in the first place.

Hell, she hadn't wanted to leave her bed for weeks after the funeral, but her parents had made her go to school.

Did she want to go to homecoming?

No.

Should she?

Maybe.

Even if she wanted to hold onto the ones she had tight enough that they wouldn't fade.

_There would never be another new memory of Lilly._

_For now… she would let Wallace and 'Amber' distract her._

00

Logan stayed quiet for most of the day. _A Lilly Kane Memorial Fountain?_

_Was Celeste out of her damn mind?_

He'd seen Veronica's face at the announcement. She was no doubt thinking the same thing he was. They'd allowed their masks to drop for a brief second.

It was enough.

And in that moment, Veronica wasn't his arch enemy. She was just the girl who'd lost her best friend. _Damned if he didn't actually want to __**do**__ something about it._

'Do something about it', apparently amounted to offering to deal with the task of a video for Lilly's memorial.

Why the hell did he suggest that?

_Oh, right. Duncan was nearly having a panic attack from just looking at the tapes __**in their cases**__._

_He was really starting to think he could use some backup where his best friend was concerned._

Now, what the hell was he supposed to do with these tapes?

_Jake Kane was right though. He and Celeste hadn't really known their daughter._

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Veronica got had just finished prepping Wallace for his first undercover assignment – _she would make a spy out of him yet _– when she went back for her cell phone and was distracted by the photos on her desk.

Memories assaulted her…

_Duncan had separated Logan and Lilly when they started getting too close to ripping each others' clothes off._ _Because, yes they __**would**__ do that with them in the general vicinity unless someone stopped them._

_Veronica still could not un-see Lilly with her hand down the front of Logan's pants- she cut off that train of thought abruptly, before she turned bright red again._

_It was Lilly – of course – who'd suggested playing Truth or Dare. Lilly didn't like secrets unless they were hers. And Veronica had learned to deal with the fact that whatever she told Lilly would almost always be shared with Duncan and Logan as well._

_Logan had thought she was cute when they'd first met? She'd been covered in mud!_

_Of course, he could have been messing with her…_

_She decided to play along though, and let him tease her._

_Lilly's dare from Logan had made her and Duncan both roll their eyes. Those two were only a few make-out sessions away from being surgically attached by the lips._

_Veronica still couldn't help grin when Lilly managed to prowl across the limo like a cat hunting for a meal. And then she had to brace herself when Logan leaned in her direction._

_If those two ended up on her lap to make out again, she was going to honest to god, push them onto the floor this time-_

_And then her brain stopped working._

_She could __**not**__ believe Lilly. She was going to hear about this for the rest of her life._

_It didn't take more than a second for Logan to make a comment about masturbation. Of course._

_Duncan had been trying to bleach his brain, but Logan opening his mouth was all it took for him to spray the champagne foam everywhere._

_Logan chased him out onto the beach and they play tackled each other in the sand._

_Lilly and Veronica settled against the seat with amusement._

"_Our boyfriends are all class", Veronica teased wryly, resting a hand on Lilly's knee._

_Lilly just chuckled, patting her hand, "Yeah."_

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Veronica left Wallace to his flirting. She walked down the hallway, and had to backtrack at the familiar sound of Lilly's voice.

She followed the sound to a nearly dark computer lab.

_Logan._

00

He caught her entrance in his peripheral vision.

And despite his current resolution not to act like a dick to Veronica – at least about Lilly – he'd been going through these tapes long enough to have raw nerves.

_And he hadn't been alone in a room with Veronica in almost a year._

"What part of my ignoring you makes you think you're welcome?"

"What are you doing?" Unlike him, she'd apparently turned off the sass to have this conversation, her voice a sad mixture of awe and longing. _Yeah, hearing Lilly's voice for the first time had pretty much ruined him too._

He bit his cheek roughly, deciding that they both deserved a free pass for right now. She was the only person who understood him now that was semi-emotionally stable. _Maybe he needed her for this. Maybe they needed each other._

"Assembling the world's most boring memorial video", he said with annoyance that for once was not for her. He picked up the stack of videos he'd been given with derision. "Ballet, choir recital, debutante crap, Girl Scouts… memories both misty and water-colored", he dropped the tapes like a stack of falling Jenga blocks.

_It was all very… Lilly Lite._

"It's Lilly as a long-distance commercial", she said somberly.

"Well, it isn't really about Lilly, is it?" _It hurt that __**she**__ of all people, was the one who got it._ "God, this would piss her off", he said with a wry laugh.

She stood behind him silently, and he glanced back after a moment to see the dazed look on her face. She was lost in her own head, apparently.

He turned back to the computer screen.

Over a minute later, he vaguely heard her leave.

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Veronica left the room, but couldn't help stop in the doorway to turn. Her memories of prom had smacked her on the face this week, but she'd completely _forgotten_-

_She hadn't seen that tape since they'd moved out of their house._

Logan had been right. This service wasn't about Lilly. At least not the Lilly they knew. Celeste would have liked her daughter better if she'd only been the girl in those videos.

But _their Lilly_? She was fierce, and stubborn, and boisterous… and never gave a damn if what she did pissed someone off.

She watched Logan scrub his hands over his face in frustration.

_He needed help._

And if she and Logan were going to survive the memorial service, she was going to make damn sure it was about the real Lilly, not a watered-down version that would no doubt be answered with golf course-style clapping.

Lilly Kane deserved better than that.

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The next day, Veronica found Logan back in the empty computer room during her free period.

She'd found the tape after Troy had left her house. It had been in a shoe box on the top shelf of her closet.

Logan was watching a slideshow of Lilly's toddler years when she walked in.

"How's it going?"

"It's very 'Wonder Years'", he quipped. "Celeste will love it."

_True. Celeste Kane made it her job to make sure the Kane family image wasn't tarnished._

She'd watched the tape herself after making a copy. It took a bit of time to talk herself into it. _Trying not to cry was harder._

It felt disloyal, trying to avoid Lilly's memory, but it still hurt to remember.

"Soooo", she said carefully, taking a seat in the chair next to him. _This was awkward, but she really just needed him to __**look**__ at her for a minute._ "I was going through some of my stuff. And I found this", she pulled the small cassette from the small pocket of her bag and handed it over carefully. _God, they'd been less awkward at age twelve._

It probably took about two seconds longer than necessary to make the transaction.

"What is it?"

She could hear the undertone of curiosity in his voice, and her answering tone was probably more affectionate than she meant for him to hear. "It's not a violin recital."

Veronica was still smiling when he looked at her, and she wavered briefly, wondering if he'd attack now that she'd shown her throat after so many months of protecting herself. But he returned her look just barely. _Enough for her to understand there was a temporary truce happening._

She watched as he stared at the label on the cardboard under the plastic case, running his finger along the front slowly.

It took another second before he nicely blew her off… well, as nicely for Logan as possible without saying get lost. She caught him, rubbing the side of his face with nervous energy. "Well, I've got a lot of work to do…"

_Right. They'd exceeded their five minutes if niceness. And she __**knew**__ he wouldn't let her stay while he watched the tape. Not that she would ask. He deserved a private moment with this memory of Lilly too._

_And the memory of __**them.**_

Still.

She missed Lilly. But Lilly was dead.

Logan…

She missed Logan and he was right in front of her.

_That hurt._

But she nodded awkwardly. "Yeah, no. Me too", she managed before standing up.

She was unaware that he watched her leave.

00

Logan opened the cassette tape warily once she left, and saw a small piece cut from a note card with her handwriting on it.

_This is a copy. Keep it._

He probably shouldn't watch this at school…

00

Veronica did actually have something to do. Her revenge op had gone perfectly. Georgia was a nice girl, and Veronica was glad to help her out, especially if it helped with Wallace's flirtation. She headed to her car once she got them squared away.

She pulled the flier for the memorial out of her bag.

_The whole school was probably going to be there, along with most of the influential people in Neptune and anyone who'd ever known Lilly. Veronica hadn't been sure if she should go… not sure of her welcome. But Miss Dent had assigned her to take pictures for the school newspaper, so the choice was out of her hands_

She would admit only to herself that she wanted to see Logan's video.

She drove back to Neptune High.

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Logan was full of nervous energy by the time the ceremony started.

_Where was Veronica?_

They'd commiserated over the video he'd had to put together for Lilly's memorial.

He'd meant what he'd said. None of it was really for Lilly. _It was for her parents. For Celeste, who wanted to remember Lilly as a Cheerios cereal poster child._

Veronica knew it too. And she'd given him the video that they'd both taken with her camera during their prom night that the four of them had skipped.

Finally he caught a flash of a camera, and it let him pinpoint Veronica in the crowd. _He wanted her here. For some reason it was important that she knew he __**remembered**__… whether he wanted to or not. But this moment was for them, and for Duncan. They deserved to have their moment, not matter what happened after._

Celeste was lulling the masses into a false state of security with her speech. _At least the band had stopped playing 'Wind Beneath My Wings'. Lilly hated that song unless she sang it on karaoke with Veronica while they made fools of themselves._

His fingers began to itch while she talked, wondering if he could discreetly cross through the crowd and get his hands on Veronica's camera himself so he didn't have to stand there like an idiot.

But he had another job tonight. And Duncan had informed him that Celeste's speech would be fairly short, so he stayed put. _No sense in getting a black eye from the short blonde when he tried to take her camera, because she would most definitely slug him._

The camera she had now was more expensive than the old one.

Logan nearly groaned when he saw the look on Duncan's face. _He didn't want to be there at all. And Jake looked just as drained. No doubt Celeste had gone on one of her Type-A personality, control-freak sprees to pull this together._

After Duncan got up and removed the red curtain so that his mother could start the fountain, Celeste gave Logan the signal to start the video. _He was going to enjoy this._

He'd already seen the montage more than once, so after he started it, he found Veronica again. She seemed to have forgotten that her job was to take pictures. She watched the beginning with a wistful expression as they watched Lilly grow up.

The music finally changed, and her eyes widened slightly in surprise at Lilly's diva voice. He couldn't help but send a quick grin in her direction. _If she hadn't given him her video… this would have totally sucked._

"_Hello, America! You wanted Lilly? You got her. Now sit back and enjoy the ride."_

Logan still couldn't help but laugh, watching Lilly and Veronica dancing in the back of the limo. _It had been funny then too. Veronica had been the naïve ray of sunshine in their group. He'd admit to missing her like that if he didn't have to hate her._

He'd put music in, taking out their conversations. Those were private, only for the four of them. _For the three she'd left behind._

Logan knew he'd surprised Veronica – which was near impossible these days. She probably thought he would edit her out of the video, but… _the past had been good. He wasn't going to mess that up too._

Extra scenes of him and Lilly kissing were just because he could. _He missed her._

"_You love me, don't you?"_

_Yeah, they really did._ Lilly had brought them back together, even if it was only for a minute.

Celeste's tight jaw and ill-concealed irritation for what she probably considered _irreverence,_ was just a somewhat childish bonus after the silent looks they'd traded that said the same thing.

That. _That_ was Lilly. And no one had known her better than they had.

She had been looking at him when he looked back at her this time.

_It was a shared smile of mutual pain, but her nod of approval was the confirmation he needed. They were the ones that mattered. And Logan had seen Duncan and Jake's response to the video as well._

_If Celeste didn't like it, she could pop a pill._

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Veronica was pleasantly surprised that he hadn't edited her out altogether considering the anger that was still simmering between them. _He let her keep her position as Lilly's best friend. That could potentially have repercussions… for both of them._

She hoped he remembered, as she had, that they'd had fun together. They'd been friends.

_She was proud of him._

She nodded in response to his silent 'thank you'.

_It had been so long… but they still made a good team. Pranking Duncan and Lilly had been their specialty. Pulling one over on Celeste was new._

The night was over though. She wasn't going to kid herself. Logan wasn't going to hang out with her tomorrow.

But she was making new friends.

They wouldn't replace the ones she'd had… but it was time to make some new memories on the beach on homecoming night.

_And maybe have one less 'I Never'._

00

Logan went to check on Duncan briefly before he left the ceremony. His best friend grinned at him, and shook his head.

"Where'd that come from?" he laughed. "I forgot that we made that."

Logan shrugged. "So did I", he admitted quietly. "Veronica gave me a copy of hers."

Duncan nearly snapped his neck to look over at him, but his shocked demeanor immediately softened. "She did? And you let her?"

"It was for Lilly", he said seriously.

"Dude-"

"Yeah, I know", Logan waved him off, "Thank you notes and fruit baskets."

Duncan snorted. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about", he laughed.

Logan didn't bother explaining.

When Veronica went back to school, there would be a copy of the memorial video in her locker.

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**A/N: I love, love, love this episode. It's so sad and heartbreaking. Thank you everyone who is reading and leaving reviews! I appreciate it a lot.**

**Okay, so the following is an answer to a review that I can't message privately, and since it may be applicable to any questions you have about the style of this story, give it a read if you want!**

_***Vicki*:**_** I would send you a PM if you had an account and were logged in. =) Thanks for leaving a review. I know there isn't much dialogue in this. Which is weird for me, because I really like writing dialogue… I'll have to save it for one of my other VM fics I have started on my flash drive. (I'm sort of testing the Veronica Mars waters here right now.) When I originally considered the idea for this fic, it was just going to be a short drabble for each episode, with thoughts from either Veronica or Logan, or both. But the length of the chapters sneaked up on me.**

**Normally I write long chapters – at least over 1,000 words, but that wasn't my original intent. When I started this from the beginning, I decided that it wasn't going to work the way I wanted.**

**There are two problems with putting more dialogue in these chapters.**

**Firstly, I do intend to stay as close to canon as possible while poking around inside their heads, so having **_**extra**_** wordage, may change canon, and I want them to be as 'in character' as possible.**

**Secondly, if I add their actual conversations into this (which is not impossible, seeing as I've done it here), it's going to take a lot longer. (Not necessarily a bad thing, but it **_**is**_** a thing.)**

**Now, there is also the point that other than a few insults, they really didn't talk to each other much in the first few episodes. It was more subtext – which is what I'm focusing on.**

**Maybe this chapter has more of what you're looking for. I'm not saying there will be **_**no**_** conversation between them shown, because as the show goes on, they do interact more. So, there will probably be some dialogue in oncoming chapters, but basically, what I don't want, is to rewrite each episode snapshot that I'm using word for word.**

**Keep in mind that I'm watching each episode as I go along. =)**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

_**Chapter 5**_

(_Episode 5: You Think You Know Somebody_)

(Or the episode where Logan is conflicted about unfortunate and supposed epiphanies and Veronica is clueless)

"There will be no talk about Veronica on this trip", Logan ordered from the passenger seat, staring back at Troy with a hint of a glare.

"Hey, man", Troy raised his hands nonchalantly. "It's a chick free weekend… except for maybe a few hookers", he winked.

Logan slid his reflective sunglasses on before his right hand tightened slightly on the 'oh shit!' handle, repressing the sudden urge to put _Troy's_ head through the side window.

_What the hell?_

Well, he knew why. It didn't mean he liked it.

Veronica had been like a sister –well, not really – but she'd fallen under the category of _his_. And the protective instincts he'd felt for her when they were friends… _they were a hell of a lot harder to kill than he'd like to admit._

He would admit _to himself_ that he did kind of like their new dynamic… especially now that she'd found her backbone again. She'd always had one, despite what some people thought. _It was made of iron now._ But she'd changed in other ways too… and she'd essentially erased any trace of sweetness she'd ever had. _At least that's what he'd thought._

_A bong in his locker? Seriously. It was probably telling that he still hadn't bothered to change the combination. And after the memorial service for Lilly… he thought they might be playing by new rules now. If he could figure out just what they were…_

He still didn't like her… but the hatred was more of an ebb and flow now, rather than a short hot poker in the back of his brain.

But still.

Logan figured he could be a little irritated that the guy who had ignored the 'hate Veronica' system was now planning to cheat on her.

Of course he had to wonder what kind of hypocrite it made him that he wanted to injure her boyfriend. _If nothing else, Veronica had proved this year that she didn't need anyone's help – and definitely not his._

It was _his_ war with her anyway. He could change the rules if he wanted.

Although he had to wonder if they could have been able to fight this out like normal people, instead of playing semi-illegal pranks on each other.

A faint smirk played on his lips. _He knew Veronica could yell. It was something that was known to nearly no one else at their high school. It had been awhile since he'd seen her lose her temper. And with the situation between them being what it was, a verbal fight between them would probably end up with one of them shoved against the wall-_

_**Whoa!**_

He shook himself out of his thoughts roughly.

Logan was not going _there_.

Yes, he liked the fact that Veronica had become a worthy opponent for him, and he couldn't deny the chemistry that crackled between them like electricity. But she was still _Veronica._

And he was going to make one last attempt to obliterate Veronica Mars from his brain.

He was going to Tijuana to get drunk.

And then get laid.

_Repeatedly._

00

_Seriously?_ She frowned as she drove towards the Mexico border. _How did she end up agreeing to this?_

_Okay, so yes, when Troy called so early, she had planned to give him a bit of a hard time about a booty call – it was barely three a.m. But it was the 'us' in his 'Can you pick us up?' that made her nearly hang up on him._

"'_Us' __**who**__?" she groaned. __**She had a bad feeling…**_

The 'us' that included Logan, thankfully didn't involve Duncan.

She thanked whatever higher power there was for small favors.

Veronica could only deal with one idiot in her life at a time.

And putting the three of them in one car with an audience…

It would be… very bad. Especially considering Duncan's penchant for reminiscing as of late. She had a feeling that Logan would appreciate that as much as she would. As in, not at all.

_Logan._

_Crap._

_She briefly wondered if she could knock him out… medically, of course. Maybe with Dramamine. She could sneak it into his drink at some point… of course her Taser would also be effective…_

She groaned for at least the fifth time.

She needed coffee if she was going to deal with a hung-over Logan without committing murder.

00

Erasing Veronica had worked fairly well until Troy's parents' car got stolen.

And the words, "_I have an idea"_, made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

It was nearly five, and the sun hadn't come up yet when Veronica pulled up near the twenty-four hour diner they were leaning against.

"Dude", she teased dryly. "Where's your car?"

Logan envisioned strangling her. _It took the edge off his hangover._

Troy just shook his head, unamused.

"Sorry", she grinned.

They went to pile into her tiny convertible that probably had belonged to the Flintstones at one point, and she held a hand up.

"Ah! You're monkey's gonna have to ride in the back", she said seriously, thumbing at the backseat.

_Like he wanted to ride in front with __**her**__? Okay, sure there was more leg room, but it wasn't worth the cost of admission._

"Hah-hah. Nice car", Logan quipped flatly, tossing his bag across the seat, "God, it must have been a huge cereal box."

Her jaw dropped incredulously at the insult. _Okay, so maybe he should keep his mouth shut before she made him walk. Luckily Troy interrupted before he actually apologized._

"Now, let's let that go", Troy held both hands up placatingly, and then grimaced. "Cherish these moments. Because they will probably be the last ones that we spend together."

"Hey", she put on her supportive voice that made Logan roll his eyes. "I don't mind dating a guy who rides a bike."

_What, like Weevil?_ He frowned. That particular relationship confused the hell out of him. And he had way too much liquor sloshing around in his brain to even attempt to consider that any further.

"How do you feel about dating a guy who's getting sent to Catholic school in Albuquerque?" Troy responded flatly.

"Can we go before I throw up?" Logan said irritably, "Again. I'm already nauseous enough without listening to the two of you."

00

"Radio?" Veronica said cheerily as she headed towards the highway.

_Oh, she was not-_ Logan kicked her seat and glowered at her when she glanced back at him in the rearview mirror. "Hang over rules, Veronica", he said tersely.

She bit her lip, hiding a grin. "And, um… are these rules still… enforceable?" she asked, voice shaky from repressed laughter.

_That sounded like a challenge… Was she messing with him? _"With the hammer of God, Mars", he answered, eyeing her steadily. _He could see Troy watching both of them from the front seat a bit warily._

_No, moron, _Logan thought, _for once they weren't about to kill each other. But they were playing on a fine line._

"So…" Veronica drawled, getting his attention again, holding up an old cassette tape. "That's a 'no' to polka music?"

_He wasn't going to explain to anyone why the hell that was so funny._

Once he stopped laughing, she had gone back to her usual expression, but her eyes were still sparkling with playfulness. He sighed. "Get us back to Neptune."

She wisely gave a silent thumb's up, and he rested his head against the window with a smirk. _Yup, repercussions to breaking hangover rules were severe._

0

Picking up the Three Stooges after Troy's car had gotten stolen hadn't been as bad as she'd anticipated. And then when Logan had gotten out of the car, they'd bantered briefly about her running him over.

'_How'd he know that was her fantasy?' she thought sarcastically._

"Thanks for the ride", Logan offered as they got out. He extricated himself from her backseat after kneeing her in the back for the _sixth_ time… the third time that it was a legitimate accident. _He __**knew**__ she hated that!_ "This mean you're gonna play nice now?"

"Walk in front of the car. We'll see."

She revved the engine as he passed.

She'd heard the unspoken _'down, tiger_' as he'd lightly cracked his jacket like a whip on the hood of her car.

The momentary lightness between them made her grin like she hadn't in a while. Memories of easier days assaulted her.

Their moment of easy banter is free and without malice for once, and she tucks it away, not knowing if she would ever get more.

But she's still wondering how he could possibly be confused about which one of them hasn't been playing nice since this had started.

She thinks he deliberately forgets, most of the time, that she loved Lilly too.

That stings.

They were nothing like they used to be.

But she focused back on Troy, and decided to put her efforts towards finding the stolen car rather than Logan's mental patient behavior.

0

A safety deposit box key, a fake death certificate, a piñata with missing drugs, and a 'roid raging drug-dealer… her father would be so proud. _Her day was full._

Well, the trip to the bank was a slap in the face… with a brick.

Photos of her face in a sniper shot wasn't exactly comforting.

And as a bonus:

Ooh, defensive boyfriend for twenty points!

_As a matter of fact, she had gone to Tijuana, but that trip had been a one-off with Logan while Kanes were on 'family vacation' during spring break, which may or may not have been an accident. She'd fallen asleep in the car and had missed the border crossing. He'd laughed for twenty minutes the next day when she finally realized they weren't even in California._

00

Logan was considering making new friends… in Alaska. Somehow he'd been roped into not only carting Luke around while he hid from his pimp – _drug dealer, but it was pretty much the same thing_ – but he'd had Luke and Troy both in his ear every time he turned around telling him that Veronica was finding Troy's dad's car, and the missing steroid-stuffed piñata, _and would he please cover Troy's ass some __**more**__?_

Of course, just when Logan had just about had enough of this ridiculous situation, Veronica was coming at him.

_Of freaking course._

"Time for a chat?"

"Wow, I think if hell froze over, maybe it'd be on the news", he snarked.

"I just want to hear more about the steroids you bought last weekend", she said flatly. Her smiling act dropped completely, and all he saw was the steel behind her eyes.

_He bought-_

_Yup, he needed new friends. Pronto._

"You mean the steroids Luke bought", he replied dutifully.

She just blinked, apparently hoping to crack a confession out of him.

_Okay, now __**she**__ was pissing him off._

"Wow, you suck at this Nancy Drew stuff. You should get a new hobby."

"So you knew he was doing it."

"You actually think that I would tell you anything?" he asked, lip curling incredulously.

She sighed, apparently about to speak. _He'd shoot himself in the foot if it was an apology._

But she glanced over his shoulder.

Logan turned too, and saw Troy heading in their direction.

Apparently the conversation was now over.

_So, it was like that? Good to know._

He gave her a sarcastic grin and the 'okay' sign. _Yup, he read her loud and clear._

"Well, I guess we're done here. Officer."

_Nope, not responding to the half a second of regretful puppy eyes she'd thrown his way before schooling her features. Apparently she only had eyes for __**Troy. Too bad for her that Troy was a douche bag.**_

"Sup, T."

_And of course she stops mooning at her cheating, drug-smuggling boyfriend to silently call him on his 'I hate you' tone he'd given Troy._

He couldn't help but hold eye contact for an extra second before pushing between them, and heading down the hallway.

_He didn't want to hear anything else they said to each other, or he was going to puke all over their fake sentimentality._

00

_God_, she grumbled to herself. _Asking Logan to be helpful was like bashing her head against a ten-pound cement block. Except she'd rather do __**that**__._

So, apparently, being helpful for the sake of it was out.

Although he's seemed a bit too offended for her taste that she'd questioned his near non-existent integrity, wondering if he was in on the sale of the drugs.

Did she think Logan sold drugs?

Not really.

But she knew he'd done a few over the years, and that he and a few of his casual friends passed them around at the occasional party.

So, why he acted like she'd hurt his feelings was beyond her.

Not only was he frustrating her, but there was Troy…

Veronica was trying to remember that she already had trust issues, but her instincts were sending up a big red flare where he was concerned.

_Dammit._

0

Well, she got a ride on Weevil's bike and found out Luke's steroids ran away. _She was getting really fed up with this whole stunt the boys had pulled. She was doing them favors while they gave her the run-around._

So, no. She had no tolerance for Luke's whining.

Memories of her mother crept up on her, and she tried to shake them off, while still trying to make sense of her life. _There was a reason she didn't dwell…_

That night she prepared her last ditch effort – for the moment – to find her mother.

Her father would help her with Troy's car in the morning.

Listen to Luke bitch some more at school…

And then she would hopefully be tracking the Vandergraff's car.

_Too bad plans rarely ended the way she wanted._

Wallace was now playing the voice of reasoning? _But… it was a legitimate question. How much trouble did you have to get into before being shipped off anyway?_

It was too much pressure.

_She snapped._

And because her day couldn't have gotten worse…

Who the hell put a tracking device on a dog's collar?

Her father's background check on Troy was just the icing on the cake.

Veronica couldn't help herself. Her father had to know that.

She opened the envelope and began reading.

Things were starting to fall into place.

She hatched a plan while quickly getting ready for school.

_Revenge._

_That she could do._

Revenge on a grand scale.

She would deal with Troy.

And then she would need Backup.

00

After school the following day, and noticing the distinct absence of Troy, Logan saw Veronica at her locker in an empty hallway.

"So, where's Troy?" Logan cocked an eyebrow. "I thought you had a master plan to save his ass."

"Well, he didn't exactly want to be saved", she shrugged, digging into her locker, basically ignoring him. "Hopefully he's on his way to hell. But I'm guessing he's trying to make up with _Shauna…_ in Connecticut. And probably cursing my name and shaking his fist at the sky."

Logan raised an eyebrow.

She smirked. "I stole the steroids Troy stole from Luke, and I flushed them."

"Good riddance", he muttered, before turning and heading towards the exit.

"You and your buddies ever need a ride again, don't call me!" she called after him. _Veronica knew she wouldn't have been in that mess to begin with if Duncan wasn't still under the watchful eye of Celeste who was acting like his jump off the bleachers had been some sort of suicide attempt._

"Deal!"

0

She went home. And after dinner she went to her room and put on her headphones to block out the world for a bit.

00

**A/N: Okay, so I took some fictional liberties with this episode. I really love this one! Really! (I will read this over tomorrow and fix mistakes. I can't edit anymore tonight. Leave a review! Please and thank you!)**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

_**Chapter 6**_

(_Episode 6: Return of the Kane_)

_Logan Echolls, everybody!_

Just what he liked first thing in the morning… being accosted by his father's groupies and paparazzi. _His narcissist father probably called them on his way home._

He hadn't even gotten coffee yet.

It was going to be a wonderful day, he just _knew_ it.

00

So… Keith Mars was attempting to bridge the gap over the 'significant others fiasco' that had transpired.

By taking her for a father/daughter day… at the zoo.

Veronica wasn't exactly feeling the fuzzy animal vibe these days.

But, as it turns out, Wallace Fennel could lay on a decent guilt trip.

_Damn._

Her trip to guilt city was suddenly interrupted by what appeared to be a throw-down.

Over Pirate Points.

_Seriously?_

Well, the elitists were in an uproar.

Lovely.

Wanda Varner standing in cheerleader pizza?

It was going to be a good week.

0

It only took until dinner for her to be slapped in the face with Lilly's murder one more time.

She simultaneously loved and hated being haunted by Lilly's ghost.

On one hand, it was like she still had her best friend with her. On the other… it reminded her in no uncertain terms that reality was still a bitch.

Ms. Dent asked her to do the report on the student council elections.

And the woman wasn't put off by her sarcasm… _Double damn._

00

Okay, so maybe Duncan was getting a little buzzed with the sudden ability to say no to everyone… his father, Logan- _he should have kept a closer eye in his best friend._

Logan Echolls did not know how to let _anything_ go, something he had stupidly forgotten.

And as far as the election… hindsight was twenty/twenty.

Duncan should have taken preventative measures.

But he was kind of happy Wanda was getting a chance to be a voice for others.

_Who knew Pirate Points were such a big deal?_

00

It was kind of nice, talking to Wanda.

Veronica would yank her own teeth out with a pair of rusty pliers before admitting that she had once enjoyed pep squad; and it had felt good, being a part of something. These days… Veronica Mars was all out of pep. It seemed like Wanda was too, although they had taken very different paths – had never really been on the same path to begin with. But they'd both been part of the same thing.

And maybe, Veronica didn't hate that completely.

00

Logan wasn't entirely sure what possessed him into thinking that _bum fights_ would be a good idea… but that's what he got for spending time with his less intelligent acquaintances while feeling the urge to do something… less than savory.

00

Veronica was stuck at the project table in the newspaper room. She much preferred sitting at a computer without Logan and Duncan right in her sightline.

But still, she couldn't help but take advantage of her front row seat to the fireworks.

She barely concealed her grin.

For half a second Logan looked like he might throw up.

_And then she heard the voice of Mr. Echolls._

He _didn't._

_Yes, he did apparently._

And Duncan looked pissed.

Bro-mance on the rocks…

"_That's my dad!"_

Veronica turned incredulously at Logan's pronouncement. He was lucky there were only two other people in the room who knew his tone was full of phony excitement and false pride. _And neither Veronica nor Duncan were exactly up for calling him on it… especially in a room full of people._

As if that wasn't bad enough, she had to listen to Logan continue to wax philosophical about how awesome Duncan was.

_Yeah, she was going to get sick of that really quickly._

But she ignored that for the moment, focusing all her energy on filling in the tiny little bubble.

0

Later that night, once she had Mars Investigations to herself, she began trying to plot out the points that could have led to Lilly's murder. _Having her dead best friend float through her dreams was comforting to a point, but she wanted answers. And Lilly's ghost was as much of an enigma as she had been while alive._

She read through her folders, and tried to figure out what was missing.

_It always seemed to come back to the Kanes._

Veronica really wanted to know _why_.

She was filled with a reluctant trepidation even as she typed Duncan's name on a new folder. Maybe it was a sense of old loyalty rearing its head despite everything that had happened, but she was having a hard time believing Duncan would ever hurt Lilly.

But like any good P.I. in training, she had to follow the information she'd been given.

She poured over the information her father had put together… again.

_Would she ever catch a break?_

_Wait-_

_Lilly's shoes…_

Now what the hell did that mean?

0

Duncan Kane for school president?

Not for long if Veronica had anything to do with it.

She was going to get to the bottom of at least _one_ mystery this week.

Even if most people considered her – at best – annoying and stubborn, she preferred the label 'tenacious'.

And even if Wallace apparently decided she needed a lesson on manners…

_She __**knew**__ she was onto something. And at this point, she would take pleasure in the tiny victories._

And nailing Madison Sinclair for cheating in the election was satisfying on a visceral level that she had no desire to explore. _The hatred was mutual, and Veronica would happily leave it at that._

0

Enlarging the pilfered photograph showing Lilly's tennis shoes in her bedroom delivered the punch in the stomach that she'd been waiting in suspense for since she'd gotten her first glimpse of the picture.

She _knew_ her own handiwork.

She'd decided to do more research on Abel Koontz and was on the phone before the thought had fully manifested.

All she felt now was _urgency_.

00

Duncan could barely believe his father was practically bribing him with burgers.

But his mother _was _trying to bring tofu into the house again, so he wasn't going to complain too much.

Handling his father alone was much easier than dealing with parental tag teaming though. And Duncan knew he at least had a _chance_ to get his own thoughts across to his father.

_Didn't try?_

_He didn't want it._

_Reign of Kane his __**ass**__._

But… finding out he didn't have to be President of the United States took off some of the pressures of expectation that he'd carried his entire life.

Why it took a tragedy-

_No, he wasn't going to think about Lilly right now. _He just wanted to finish high school.

_Driftwood carving?_

Obviously he was yanking his dad's chain a bit.

Still, it was comforting to know that his father ultimately wanted his happiness, even if he went about it in some of the most ridiculous ways.

00

Veronica never could catch a break these days. Poster vandalism? Didn't anyone in Neptune know how to use their words?

And she could have done without the 'Kane for President' sticker across her locker. She honestly hoped that was a joke.

Someone spray painted on 'Narc' on the hood of Wanda's car?

Lovely.

Neptune High students were reusing old pranks.

And this one hit her pretty hard.

So… maybe she was projecting a hell of a lot of emotion when she stalked into the newspaper room and blamed the graffiti on Logan.

_He was the source of all her problems, after all._

00

Logan tried to stay calm. He really did.

And he was being about as nice as he was going to be to her.

But her staring was a bit unnerving.

And he was getting really damn sick of being her personal scapegoat.

_And maybe he wanted her to walk away before he ended up getting caught staring at her bare collarbones… That was a discussion that needed to happen __**never.**_

So he got up and walked away; but not before throwing a feigned punch at her stomach.

_What the hell had possessed him to pull that trick again? He had no idea._

He was a bit disappointed that she didn't even flinch though.

He was even more stupidly disappointed that she didn't tackle him to the floor right there and start a wrestling match.

But he shook that wistfulness off immediately, wondering how it managed to sneak up on him in the first place. _He blamed it on her scoop-neck shirt._

Stupid collarbones.

From the other side of the room he discreetly watched her zero in on Duncan.

Logan was not above eavesdropping on conversations that fell under the category of Duncan and Veronica.

It was their exchanged sharp tones that caught his attention, even from a distance. Dick was saying something to him, but Logan was more focused on the short conversation happening across the room.

"Don't stop there, Veronica. Say it. What's my usual way?" Duncan demanded.

"You. Stand. Idly. By", she enunciated, with a fair amount of anger and disgust.

_Veronica Mars, ladies and gentlemen… __**she's**__ not pulling any punches these days._

_Not that she was wrong._ Even if Logan hated to admit it.

He reluctantly focused on Dick.

And then Logan's day went straight to hell.

_He was in a damn tabloid?!_

If his father heard about this-

_Why had he thought bum fights would be a fun idea in the first place?_

Judgment was apparently also twenty/twenty.

_He really hoped his father never found out about this._

00

It was nice to hang out with Wanda again. _Even if they __**were**__ making more stupid posters like the ones they'd done for pep squad._

Gossip about her and _Weevil_?

Veronica couldn't say that she was surprised.

_Disgusted, sure, but not surprised._

Getting a feeling that she was somehow standing on another one of Lilly's secrets… made her feel a bit edgy.

_Lilly and __**Weevil**__?_

She couldn't even begin to wrap her head around the idea.

Still…

Boy-crazy Lilly…

Lilly that _loved_ to piss off her parents…

God.

00

Spending the day with dear ol' Dad, pretending to be a happy family was not worth the twenty minutes of self-destructive fun he'd conjured.

Logan was so unbelievably sick of his father's addiction to fame.

Aaron Echolls was nothing more than an image… a mirage. He was a magic trick of the cameras and flashing lights.

_His father was a monster._

And standing in front of cameras, looking like he gave a damn about getting back in his father's good graces, felt even more dishonest than his life usually did.

His father pulled him into that showy hug that made his skin crawl, and he wanted to vomit.

Feeling vindictive and reckless, and knowing the consequences would for damn certain be painful, Logan did the one thing that he knew would piss off his father the most.

_Logan gave away his father's money._

00

Veronica got her locker searched.

Shocker.

Finding out that Wanda actually _was _a narc… she was kind of disappointed. But her instincts rarely failed her.

Duncan Kane winning the election for real this time?

Well.

_It __**was**__ all about the Kanes._

She would know.

00

He watched his friend give his speech with a bit of disbelief. Logan would admit to wanting Duncan to be student body president for selfish reasons, but he'd also thought having something to focus on might do Duncan some good.

Logan had been prodding at his friend to be present in the real world for the better part of the year, and it seemed like all it had taken was a bit of angry snarling between Duncan and Veronica to give him a kick in the ass – which was, no doubt, what the blonde had done.

He wasn't _unhappy_ with the outcome, per se. But he was kind of pissed that Veronica had pulled off what Logan had deemed almost impossible.

And he didn't miss the fifteen seconds of shock where Veronica forgot that she was supposed to be taking pictures. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the look on her face, and then the way she and Duncan cautiously traded glances. At least there were no cartoon hearts coming out of their eyes.

00

The jig was up.

She was locked out of the safe.

_How was she supposed to play this?_

She didn't like using her espionage skills against her own father.

It only took ten seconds for her to crack.

She understood her father's motives now, but…

_Her father listened to her._

_Thank God._

She needed someone to tell her that she wasn't going crazy.

00

**A/N: Okay, guys! I know this took a while, but I didn't have too much time on my hands with the holidays going on. I hope you'll forgive the wait and leave some reviews!**

**I know there's not really any extra dialogue in this one. There will probably be at least one or two more chapters where this happens, but I can't, in good conscious, say I'm sticking to canon when the episode doesn't give me a feeling about where Logan and Veronica could have connected behind the scenes in an episode.**

**That being said, there **_**was**_** a brief moment, so I'm not disappointed with this chapter. Let me know what you think! Please!**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

_**Chapter 7**_

(_Episode 7: The Girl Next Door_)

_Her fault…_

_Her fault…_

_Her fault…_

_She needed desperately for someone to tell her that it wasn't._

_Maybe she knew that it wasn't._

_But no one was going to say so._

_She was alone._

_She was always alone._

_Sometimes she wished she wasn't._

_Maybe the worst part was that her father seemed disappointed in her… again._

00

Sometimes, despite everything that had gone wrong, Veronica really liked her life. There were some nice people in their apartment complex. Sure, a few of them were a few cards short of a deck, but not all of them.

Sarah was a nice girl.

And despite the high school rumors, Veronica could be nice too.

00

_Dearest Daddy strikes again_, Logan thought derisively as he walked away from his conversation with Principal Clemmons.

Of _course_ his father made donations to the high school. It kept Logan – mostly – out of trouble.

He could deal with that. But he hated being the go-between that had to hear about all the great promises his 'wonderful actor father' had made, and then having to relay messages back to his actual 'unpredictable, abusive-on-a whim father'.

He had a feeling he was getting the short end of the stick.

00

_How had Miss Dent managed to sucker her into another horrible project? Was she actually going soft?_

_A class reunion?_

_Who wanted to celebrate __**that**__?_

Veronica was pretty sure that once she graduated, she would be coming nowhere near Neptune High ever again.

_People wanted to come back?_

_Lucky them._

But still.

The class of 1979… her mother's graduating year…

It was like waving a feather in front of a cat.

She _missed_ her mother.

The mother Lianne had been before alcohol had taken over ninety-five percent of her personality.

Veronica wanted to _know her._

00

Logan should have kept his mouth shut. It's not like he _liked_ Weevil. He should have just been able to ignore him, right?

But Weevil had been eyeing him up like maybe he wanted to ask him on a date, or maybe just admiring his outfit, so no.

It's not like Logan was particularly good at ignoring anything.

Just ask Veronica.

He should have ignored the _hell_ out of _her_.

He pointedly shook off all thoughts of Veronica.

Yapping at Weevil and _then_ insulting the teacher, was admittedly probably not his best move.

Besides, what did Mr. Daniels mean when he said Logan couldn't ride on his father's fame forever?

Like hell did he even want to be on his father's ride of fame _now_.

Wrapping up the day with detention should be comforting by now, it was so familiar.

But detention and having to listen to Weevil monologuing about the plight of the lower class was something he could pass on.

He's momentarily startled by the double entendre about masturbation and Solitaire – but he's all for a game of poker to pass the time. Even if he had to play the game with Weevil.

Logan would reluctantly admit to himself that he _maybe_ had an ulterior motive…

He still wanted to know how Veronica Mars had managed to befriend the leader of the PCHers, but he couldn't exactly go around asking those types of questions.

Some irritating part of him wanted to know if she was staying safe.

Her going head-on against _him_ was one thing. No matter how pissed off he was, Logan would never lay a hand on the tiny blonde terror. Veronica pissing off Weevil… Logan didn't want to consider the ramifications of what that could lead to.

He'd say that he used to believe Veronica was a good judge of character. He wasn't planning on being buddies with Weevil Navarro, but he needed to know she wasn't going to get hurt. _Logan decided he was just going to accept reality and not question when old feelings reared their ugly head over his destroyed friendship with Veronica. He'd keep his mouth shut and his eyes open when it came to finding out if she had her head screwed on straight. Because some of the things he'd been hearing made him wonder if she had a few screws loose._

Maybe he'd essentially thrown her to the wolves, so to speak, and she'd become more predator than prey…

But there were parts of her that he didn't really want damaged.

So he poked at Weevil a bit, playing nice, trying to pick him apart until they were interrupted.

"_This is punishment, gentlemen, not party time._"

How was Logan supposed to refrain from snarking at teachers who said such completely asinine things?

_Of __**course**__ now they had a week of detention._

_Fantastic._

0

Veronica was getting more and more curious about the goings on in Sarah and Andre's apartment.

She was already worried about their argument – yes she understood that couples fight, but it still made her anxious – when she woke up in the middle of the night to hear an unusually loud '_thump_' from their apartment above her.

She didn't get much sleep after that.

Her father not taking her concerns seriously irritated her a bit.

And she was even more alarmed when she went to give Sarah a ride to her doctor's appointment, and no one answered the door, but she heard Killer barking inside. A quick look in the window showed a pretty decent mess.

_Not good._

Apparently Sarah was missing her doctor's appointment, but Veronica still had to get to school.

0

She went to the journalism room to get started on her reunion project.

There was weird, and then there was _weird_.

Jake Kane and her mother taking up the page for prom king and queen of 1979? That was _weird._

Maybe someone could answer this question for her at least.

That would probably mean talking to Duncan, but… it could be worse, she supposed.

She found him in the hallway and did some careful poking, watching his face intently.

Veronica frowned when he walked away, after somehow managing not to even really answer her questions. _Maybe he really was practicing for that politician lifestyle._

But the last year had told her that Duncan wasn't exactly forthright about important things, so she resolved to do some digging on her own.

00

While Veronica went deal with the distinct lack of her neighbor Sarah who had never called her back, Logan was doing manual labor with Weevil in the school parking lot. _He'd much rather be in detention._

00

She was still hung up on Andre's blasé attitude and _field hockey-_

There was a woman disrobing in front of her…

_Okay_ then.

But really? Field hockey? It was like no one knew her.

She supposed it was time for some good old fashioned B &amp; E.

Finding the hand gun was distinctly less terrifying than getting caught in Andre and Sarah's apartment. Her father didn't need to hear about this. Or there might be another potential murder in their apartment complex.

0

She was having a hard time trying to swallow the idea that her mother and Duncan and Lilly's father had been the 'it couple' of their graduating class.

_She wondered if her father knew about this… not like she could ask him._

Alarm bells were starting to go off in her head though.

She needed to know more.

00

Logan Echolls would never admit to having less than derisive feelings for Weevil Navarro, _but_… they hadn't killed each other yet. And there was some kind of annoying camaraderie between them. He supposed they could spend the week trading barbs… or pull the most epic prank of the year.

Besides, Weevil didn't seem like he had a short fuse. He clearly didn't take shit from people, but he was actually kind of laid back. It was enough for Logan to decide that maybe the biker wouldn't strangle his favorite blonde pest any time soon.

He wouldn't have that written in stone just yet, and he'd keep an eye out for trouble, but he relaxed slightly.

And then they began to plot.

00

Sarah's parents were talking to Andre when Veronica got back to the apartment complex. Talking to Andre had nowhere near abated _her_ concerns. It appeared that he didn't care much at all about Sarah's whereabouts. So she couldn't help but make the suggestion that they speak to her father.

If it turned out that Andre had nothing to do with Sarah's disappearance, he still wasn't getting a Christmas card.

00

The whole school was in an uproar about Mr. Daniels's car being skewered by the flagpole.

By the time Logan heard from Duncan about Weevil's expulsion, he'd also hear that Weevil hadn't given up his accomplice.

He didn't really know why he cared about Weevil's fate.

Maybe it was the fact that Duncan had answered Logan's shock about the school even expelling anyone with 'not our people' that made him feel guilty. He wasn't oblivious, and he wasn't always as apathetic about the differential treatment as most people thought.

_The question was what did he do about it?_

00

Veronica wasn't exactly happy that her father had pulled the rug out from under her with this case, but she understood that he was serious about his worry. A little bargaining, however, and he agreed to let her help from afar.

Her phone call left her with more questions than ever though.

_Who was the father of Sarah's baby?_

00

_Bribery was apparently what Logan decided as a proper course of action._

_His father's boots for Weevil's… un-expulsion._

Clemmons was so easy.

That was good to know.

00

_Oh, god. Sarah._

_If she'd gotten pregnant by her rapist-_

Veronica didn't have time to think about that when Sarah's co-worker was still giving her the run-around about Sarah's journal.

Now _who_ could help her upset an uptight, white guy?

The sounds of motorcycles were becoming way more soothing to her than it should be, she supposed.

She watched through the glass doors as Weevil's guys started trying things on and pulling things off the racks with a smug grin on her face.

A clever quip and a shocked co-worker later, and she had her hands on the elusive journal.

00

Weevil should probably say 'thank you' to Logan for being back at school…

But that wasn't going to happen.

His version of a 'thank you', whether Logan knew it or not, was lying about his tattoo of Lilly's name.

They painted over the graffiti in silence.

00

Veronica was still feeling the adrenaline high from solving her case when the unthinkable happened.

It was when her father started speaking about Andre's love for Sarah that he would raise another man's baby that she suddenly had to question her own paternity…

And then the yelling began upstairs.

Veronica heard the gun go off.

Her father's gun.

_Sarah had been raped by her step-father._

If she hadn't gotten involved, would this have ever gotten out?

Later she would remember that it had been Andre who had called Sarah's parents to begin with, but right now, she placed a majority of the blame for the outcome solely on herself.

0

The next day after school Veronica stayed late to finish working on the display for the reunion. She passed Weevil and Logan on ladders, still repainting over graffiti when she was leaving.

"You missed a spot", she teased mildly.

"'ey, girlie, you want to get up here and trade spots?" Weevil stared down at her with a cocked eyebrow.

"Not a chance in hell. Besides, why would I interrupt this little bromance you two have got going on?" she gestured between Logan and Weevil.

"You should be nice considering I did you a favor yesterday", Weevil said pointedly.

She smirked. "Admit it. You had fun."

"Do you _want_ something?" Logan asked pointedly, eyes narrowing. _The idea Weevil hanging out with Veronica was still unsettling for some reason._

"Oh, no. I just wanted to stop by and see for myself that you even know _how _to paint", she gave him a hard grin, much less relaxed now that it was directed at him. "I figured you would have Tom Sawyer'd your way out of it by now."

"Hey, Veronica, do you know how much _fun_ painting over graffiti is?" Logan asked pointedly.

"I'm much more curious to find out how hard I would have to kick your ladder before you fell off", she sighed whimsically, tapping her chin.

Weevil snorted. "You've had enough trouble this week already, haven't you, V?"

She waved her hand absently. "What, yesterday? That was nothing."

"I mean last night."

"Heard about that, did you?" she grimaced.

"Damn right I did."

She bit her bottom lip, ignoring the way Logan was discreetly tracking their conversation as he moved his roller brush slowly up the wall. Veronica shrugged. "Everyone is okay", she said finally.

"Yeah?" Weevil asked suspiciously. "What about you?" _Normally he wouldn't be having this conversation in front of Echolls, but he still felt like the kid needed a reality check. Veronica had been through enough._

"Me?" she laughed. "Well, you're right about one thing, Weevil. I'd better get out of here before Clemmons shows up. The _last_ thing I need is to be stuck in detention with you two."

"Might be safer", he muttered under his breath.

"Hardly", she retorted. "You boys play nice now!" she gave a jaunty wave as she turned around.

"What? No jokes about piñatas?" Logan called after her.

"Don't worry. I'm going to get my stick", she answered, still walking away, not bothering to turn around.

"I've got a stick-"

"Mine's bigger!" she interrupted, flicking him off over her shoulder, and he couldn't help laughing.

It was only when she rounded the corner that he turned and gave Weevil a hard stare. "What the hell was that?"

Weevil eyed him shrewdly. "If you even give a damn, maybe you should go ask _her_", he said pointedly.

"Forget it", Logan growled.

"Uh-huh", Weevil muttered, going back his task.

Only the _woosh-woosh_ of the wet sponge rollers on the walls interrupted the silence.

_Weevil was so done with detention._

00

**A/N: Sorry for the delay. I haven't had much time to re-watch episodes and write lately. But let me know what you think of the latest chapter! I like reviews!**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Friends and Enemies: Season One Sound Bites**_

**Summary: Missing pieces from Season One, and pre-series, examining the Logan/Veronica relationship.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Veronica Mars franchise… except Season 1. I have that on DVD.**

_**Chapter 8**_

(_Episode 8: Like a Virgin_)

Veronica couldn't let go of the idea that Abel Koontz was taking the fall for Lilly's killer. Lilly was always in the back of her mind, a thought she couldn't shake. Not that Lilly Kane would ever settle for being a mere thought.

She couldn't help staring at the crime scene photos she'd printed while seated at her desk in her father's office.

It was a fortuitous event that Cliff McCormack stopped by the office. _Fortuitous, as in, she'd called him and scheduled a fake appointment for him with her father._

Not only was Cliff a long-time friend of her father's, but he was also Abel Koontz's lawyer.

And he was not immune to her charms.

She let a big smile cross her face as she greeted him.

She appreciated Cliff for more reasons than one.

But first and foremost, he was always smart enough to know when she was trying to play him, and he let her – _after _making sure she knew that he knew it.

And public defender or not, he was a good lawyer… even if he occasionally used the resources of Mars Investigations to color outside the lines a bit.

Veronica understood the sentiment. _It was difficult to get a fair trial in Neptune period, especially when the law enforcement was corrupt._

0

Veronica _hated_ Madison Sinclair.

If anyone cared to know why, they could start by asking her clothes that had been shoved into the toilet while she'd taken her shower after gym class.

_Bitch._

Did she _want_ to wear a cheerleading outfit?

_Hell no._

She didn't want or _need_ that kind of attention.

But Meg Manning was nice.

She'd been one of the few that could be considered popular that hadn't turned on Veronica when Logan had deserted her and declared her enemy _numero uno_.

She was just grateful that Logan was keeping his distance today, or else she'd have a handful of different problems besides the wolf whistles and catcalls. _Although he'd looked a little shell-shocked from his position standing at the coffee cart. If he wanted to act like he'd never seen her in a two-piece swimsuit, that was just fine with her._

Veronica already didn't like the attention. She didn't like having eyes on her. It was uncomfortable for so many reasons-

Maybe this was why she was attracted to P.I. work.

It required so much time spent in the shadows.

She remembered when she had been like Meg.

Pink sweaters and flirty skirts…

Not that she _never_ wore pink anymore, but her personality wasn't pink and fuzzy anymore.

Maybe the shadows she'd been skulking in for the past year had become a part of her.

She almost wished she were naïve enough to think that she could just go sit with Meg and everything could be the way it had been… but she knew she would have received a rude awakening. It would never be that easy. Maybe there was part of her that missed being part of a group, but there was a bigger part of her that just missed having her closest friends.

The person she should have been closest to should have been Logan. Not Duncan. _He'd_ left her before Lilly had been murdered. But Logan-

It didn't matter. Now Logan usually didn't deign to speak to her unless it was to ruin her day.

She hated feeling like the four years of their supposed friendship had been a lie.

And yet, she couldn't hate _him_.

She hated _that_ more than anything.

Veronica went home to change, and then decided to blow off the rest of the afternoon. 'One trip to hell per day' was her motto.

After school was over, she met Wallace at his house to watch television.

She grinned at her best friend.

_Of __**course**__ he'd taken the purity test._

And like any good BFF, she'd tried to help him up his score.

Getting caught by his mother in mid-flash was almost as bad as having to wear a cheerleading outfit.

_She quite possibly had her levels of mortification out of wack._

And now she was the girl with questionable morals… at least to Wallace's mother.

_Whoops._

(She knew the majority of Neptune High thought she was easy, but she tried to keep the adults who heard about her supposed reputation to a minimum.)

0

She'd been right.

After all the excitement and bragging about the results of the purity test, now it was a free-for-all. The test scores were now for sale, and it seems like nearly every couple in school was fighting.

It wasn't just couples either. Friends were fighting, supposed secrets were revealed… and no one was looking at Veronica.

Until-

_Poor Meg._

Who the hell would be cruel to such a sweet person?

She shouldn't be surprised.

It had happened to her.

Veronica used to be that nice.

Now though…

She went to the computer room and was sent after a girl named Mac with blue hair.

Mac was…

She felt a kindred spirit in Mac's behind-the-scenes, computer savvy.

Veronica had been sent down a path that was leading her to some weird, but nice, people.

And then there was Wallace.

_Bonkers?_

_Au contraire._

_She preferred something more along the lines of… sassy. Or, hell, __**eclectic**__ would be fine._

She was different than the mainstream Neptunians, not crazy in the head.

Later that evening, when Wallace went to answer the telephone, she couldn't help noticing his mother having a disagreement with their renter.

_Hmmm… maybe she should keep an eye on that._

0

Veronica could help wincing the next morning as Meg tanked her Navigator report. _When someone had a worse day than she usually did, and it was a person as nice as Meg… Veronica felt their pain._

_Meg hadn't done anything to deserve the harassment she'd been receiving._

Veronica couldn't help thinking that Meg was a ghost of the person _she _used to be. As often as Lilly had tried to scandalize her, and prodded her innate sense of adventure that was wrapped in pink fluff, Lilly had rarely given her a serious reality check about their world. _She didn't want Meg to end up as jaded as she'd become._

She went to go check on Meg after class let out, and it led to Meg's sister Lizzie.

_Lizzie was… _pretty much the exact _opposite_ of Meg.

And the girl really liked to cake on the makeup between classes.

Veronica briefly wondered how she even managed to blink.

_Wow, Lizzie had some serious resentment going on_… but she didn't really believe Meg's sister had anything to do with the computer hacking issue.

Thank god. Sibling rivalry was an area where she had no expertise whatsoever.

But now she had to find herself a tech guy…

0

_Damn, that foreign guy was a tough nut to crack._

She'd just have to find another angle.

First she needed to make a visit to the auditorium.

Meg was auditioning for the play, and she'd need all the support she could get with vultures swarming.

_She'd been right. Neptune High was once again banding together to humiliate yet another student. At least they were consistent._

Veronica ended up having to chase Meg down the hallway.

_God, teenagers were awful. But then again, she knew a few adults who weren't any better._

14?

A 14? Seriously?

How nice. She'd really been missing her time in the limelight. _Not that she would wish it on Meg._

Veronica at least was used to it.

_Yes, she understood how twisted that was. That being called a slut was normal…_

_Tell it to Logan. He'd started the rumors, and whatever had transpired at Shelly's party had only fanned the flame._

She bit her tongue, trying to put off thoughts of Logan, like she usually did. _Honestly, she tried not to think about him at all unless he was in her face… it didn't always work._

_Stubborn boy._

And people said _she_ was tenacious?

No one was as stubborn as Logan. She used to tease him about it sometimes when they were younger. Veronica hadn't realized back then what a destructive personality he had. Now… even if he finally managed to deal with his anger over Lilly's death, or at least stop blaming her, she still wouldn't expect an apology.

_She wasn't sure she would be able to trust an apology if he actually gave it. Hell, at this point she only trusted her father and herself. She liked Wallace, but trust… It wasn't his fault. Everything that had happened with Lilly, Duncan, and Logan had turned her into a very suspicious girl who carried a stun gun._

Everything in her screamed that Logan wasn't safe for her to be around anymore. Not physically. She knew exactly how angry he could get at Lilly… had witnessed their screaming matches on more than one occasion. His anger then had been a burning hot fire.

Now… he was cold, calculated fury. He had an impulsive personality that mixed with the rage he had now that made him unpredictable. _She wouldn't mention to anyone that he was basically having the longest temper tantrum __**ever**__._

She could be certain he wouldn't put a hand on her… but that was as far as her trust went. _Maybe that was something, but it wasn't much._

And it shouldn't have ever been anything she'd have to actually mull out in her entire life after knowing him since she was twelve years old. Having to even consider something like that had been like a sucker punch to the stomach-

_Oh, right. She was talking to Meg._

It's possible she sucked at pep talks that needed to go beyond 'that sucks; grow a backbone'.

In any case, Meg didn't deserve this crap. She'd never done anything to anyone. Not that Veronica thought _she_ deserved the problems she had acquired in the last year- well. The Veronica she used to be sure as hell hadn't deserved this… but now? She'd reluctantly admit that she instigated some things. It wasn't that she _always _went looking for trouble, but a lot of the time, over the course of teaching someone not to mess with her, she'd made a few enemies.

That was okay. She liked enemies. The line was clear. Enemies wanted to ruin your life.

Friends… could turn into enemies with the slightest of pushes. _Veronica Mars did not like the unpredictable._

And maybe somewhere along the way, she'd decided the she wanted to control the situation a bit. She didn't have to play nice with everyone, and she had a list of people that she knew were not her fans. And _maybe_, whatever retaliation came back to her was easier to swallow when she knew it was coming.

It would take a long time before she would understand that she and Logan were alike in more ways than she would ever be comfortable with.

_(He could take a beating, but it stung less if he thought he might deserve it. And he liked to have a bit of control over when it happened.)_

The 09'ers were going to come after her anyway.

She as well have done something to piss them off first.

00

Between classes that afternoon, Logan passed Veronica's locker.

_14?_

He snorted. He'd actually _taken_ the test and gotten a higher score than that. _When did people think she had time to be having that much sex?_

Logan grimaced. _He wasn't even going to start thinking about sex and Veronica in the same sentence._

Of course it probably didn't help that she kept yanking people into the girls' bathroom with her.

_Weirdo._

If someone was yanking his teeth out with a pair of pliers, he _might_ admit that he was kind of proud of her for growing some balls.

That didn't mean he liked it.

_At least, he didn't __**like**__ that he liked it._

00

Hanging out with Wallace?

_Awesome._

Tingly spidey-senses confirmed about his renter being a lunatic?

_Not good._

She wasn't touching that with a fifty-foot pole. _She was an adventurist, not an idiot._

Veronica offered her dad's services right away.

_Besides, she still had to help Meg._

_She was busy dammit._

Busy was good.

0

When she got home though, she took a break from worrying about Neptune high school's hierarchy and concocted a letter to Abel Koontz.

_Tomorrow would be another day of trying to crack the foreign computer guy._

It didn't take long for her to decide that he may very well be involved in whatever was going on… it was probably his condescending attitude.

0

When Wallace came over later that afternoon to study, angry about their lousy tenant who acted like he was missing a few screws in his head, Veronica set her mind on having her father take care of the situation before it got dangerous.

Despite Wallace's protests, she wasn't going to let her newly acquired BFF potentially get lit on fire by his insane renter.

00

Out in the quad during lunch the next day, Veronica couldn't help glare at Duncan as he ran his mouth about Meg. She didn't take a particular liking to the cocky tone of his voice either. _(Maybe he'd been spending too much time with Logan.)_

Veronica couldn't help be proud of Lizzie though. Despite their issues, she had her sister's back in Meg's absence from school.

0

She went to Meg's after school and found her in bed with a pile of tissues. Veronica couldn't blame Meg for needing to take a day off. But she knew it wouldn't help the situation. There would be more whispers when she came back.

Sooo... maybe Veronica had told a little white lie. But she needed to keep her facade intact. It would help Meg in the long run anyway. (Or at least it would ensure Veronica herself wouldn't be damaged by sharing her feelings. As nice as Meg was, a few well-meaning comments at school could make things much worse for Veronica.)

Revenge.

Revenge was good advice.

00

Veronica gave her father unspoken permission to meddle when Wallace came back over acting squirrelly.

_Norman?_

Oh geez.

_Right._

Mrs. Fennel worked for Kane Software.

Ick.

Veronica could only imagine what they must say about her family.

She gave herself a minute to be bummed out before resuming her efforts to cheer up Wallace.

0

The next morning before school when her father came back with Wallace's keys, she knew she had one less thing to worry about.

And then she got to school.

An email to Duncan Kane?

An email to Duncan professing her undying love AND saying he probably needed a VD test?!

_Oh. My. God._

She briefly considered turning back the clock to yesterday and joining Meg under the safety of blankets.

But-

Who the hell is Froggy?

Ohh. _Duh_.

00

Kimmy and the IT guy? Eww.

Well, a video confession before lunch was fairly decent.

Between Pam and Kimmy, the wannabe 'It Girls' got knocked down a peg, and Meg got her clean reputation back.

It was good enough.

She was fairly happy about ruining Dick's day too. He'd have to call Triple A. She smiled.

The missing puzzle piece only dawned on her when Mac drove buy in a new car.

Well.

That was unexpected.

Veronica kind I liked it.

0

She was glad she could give Meg her life back. But Veronica couldn't imagine going back to the people who'd turned their backs on her so easily. That's where she and Meg differed. The situation wasn't exactly the same either.

Meg may have given her some -unwarranted - good advice... toning down the revenge. But she'd been caught off guard more than once. She made it her job to stay a store ahead these days.

Friends though...

She still liked the sound of that.

It was a word she missed fiercely... almost painfully. It was exhausting being able to rely on no one but herself. She'd had more at one point. It had been yanked away. It wasn't that she didn't want friends.

There was a part of her that did.

But she had lost the ability to give out trust freely.

And it was something she would have to deal with eventually.

She wasn't ready yet.

Veronica was about to get in her car when she saw Duncan walk by with two other jocks.

That damn email.

She had to get that wrapped up quick lest Logan hear she really was pining away for her ex-boyfriend.

She was glad his friends left when she called his name and he doubled back to meet her.

She explained the situation quickly, hoping to god that he hasn't read it, or at least hadn't thought any of it was true.

Saying she didn't have VD was spit out first because it was easier than telling him she wasn't still in love with him. It stupid because they hadn't even broken up really. He just froze her out without giving a reason. And it would be embarrassing as hell for her to still be writing his name in hearts these days. But she didn't particularly like saying it out loud. Maybe she had fallen out of love. But she missed him.

Or she missed what they'd had before it had all gone to hell.

Unfortunately.

His saying he wasn't still in love with her - like she'd needed to hear it as much as he needed to say it after that unedited video was aired - was awkward to hear.

It sounded like a lie.

And then he teased her about STDs. That she could handle. She couldn't help grinning as she threw a playful punch.

Jerk.

Her smile faded as he walked away.

Nothing would ever be the same as it was.

She left school quickly and drove to the prison that held Abel Koontz.

She had a meeting she couldn't miss.

0

Well, for a criminal supposedly dumb enough to go back to a crime scene and retrieve paraphernalia, he was smart enough to see through her fairly quickly.

The fact that he knew her real name without her telling him-

Her father had probably warned her more than once about asking questions she didn't really want answers to...

She didn't think Koontz had killed Lilly.

And apparently her father had been making more waves than she knew.

Koontz knew her mother

Her mother.

Lianne Mars, who apparently had been having a lengthy affair with Jake Kane.

Jake Kane who Abel Koontz delightedly told her was her biological father.

She crossed the parking lot feeling light-headed. Her thoughts were swirling. Her reality was upset red yet again with this potential information.

Lianne Mars and Jake Kane-

Keith Mars, her father-

She only managed to get the key in the ignition before she began crying.

00

**A/N: Sorry the update took longer than I wanted. Hopefully the length makes up for it a bit! But I was working on a short flashback idea for a scene in 'Ruskie Business'. I can't wait until you guys get to that chapter! Thanks for reading! And those of you who left reviews that I couldn't respond to, thank you too! I have to re-work my writing into my schedule again. Hopefully you'll get another chapter before the end of the weekend.**


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